User blog:Memfis Mafia/Improving geocache logs
To log your geocache find online, all that you are required to do is put something in that little box. It could be a simple “I found it.”… or what you are likely to se a lot: TFTC. The acronym TFTC stands for Thanks For The Cache. I know its not brain surgery but it can be confusing to new cachers the first time they see it. TFTCTNLNSL? This is absolutely not what you should write for a log and I’ll explain why. Think back to when you were in high school and you got your yearbook. There was always that one idiot that like to write between the pages. “I’m the first to sign your crack.” It seemed funny at the time but years later when he died in a horrific floor waxing incident and the last communication from his was that lame line – a little embarrassing. Geocaching is very similar. What you put in your logs serve two purposes. The first is to pay homage to the owner for spending his time to build a cache, seek permission, get it approved through groundspeak, and then maintain it when some neighborhood nardowell decides he wants to destroy it. That’s a lot of effort and we should probably put in at least a little effort to say thanks. If this is your first cache it should be easy to write something in the log: “Yay, my first cache. I found this one quickly despite my inexperience. I almost got stung by a swarm of killer bees while signing the log….” You get the point. The second thing filling out a good log does is to serve as a reminder for you years down the road when you are still caching. Think back to that yearbook again. Its fun to see those little notes your real friends wrote. This carries over to adding photos to your log. Who doesn’t want to remember their fashion choices from high school? ***Warning*** Do not take a photo of the cache – spoilers are bad. Spoilers are like running into a kindergarten class and telling them all that there is no Santa Claus. Just don’t do it. Photos of you and your group or some interesting view or feature nearby makes for a great memento. This is one of those times that taking a selfie is not only ok but is encouraged. Both you and the cache owner will come to appreciate these photos. We can look back and see how much our girls have changed and fondly remember our little caching adventures. https://memfismafia.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/before-after.png Geocaching through the years So now you have written a creative log, added a photo of the scenery or yourself smiling. Is there anything else that can be done? You bet. The first of which is to add a little color or formatting to your log. Geocaching.com makes it easy to bold or italicize your text. All you have to do is add a few tags using BB code. Don’t worry, you don’t have to learn a new programming language. Just google BB code and you will easily find a list of codes you can use. They are as simple as this: bBold words/b or iItalicized Words/i Once you get the hang of this you can step it up one more notch by developing a quick signature line much like you would do in your email. We use this: Memfis Mafia “Get out and Play”1 (818) 8ME-MFIS Visit our family blog at MemfisMafia.com. You can also find us on Facebook, twitter, youtube, and Instagram. All of this is done with just a few BB tags. Try it out, add your signature or maybe even just a small tagline. We hope you find this helpful. Category:Blog posts